Descriptive Summary
Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University Harrington, Karl Pomeroy, 1861-1953.Karl Pomeroy Harrington Papers, 1856 - 19811000-117Material in English4.05For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult Special Collections & Archives staff.Karl Pomeroy Harrington (1861-1953) was an alumnus of Wesleyan University and a professor of Latin at Wesleyan from 1905-1929. His father, Calvin Sears Harrington, was also a professor of Latin at Wesleyan.The Karl Pomeroy Harrington Papers include correspondence, writings, studies in Latin, diaries, scrapbooks, and music programs. Topics in the correspondence include faculty and administrative issues at Wesleyan, Harrington's publications, and his family. Other topics include Harrington's interests in Latin poetry, Wesleyan history, Middletown history, railroads, and the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions

No restrictions; the collection is open for research use. However, the scrapbooks are very fragile and must be handled with extreme care.

Copyright Notice

Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Probably acquired from the Harrington family via archivist John Spaeth.

Processing Information

Processed by Patricia Bodak Stark, 2005

Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, June 2006

Biographical Note

The following biographical sketch of Karl Pomeroy Harrington is taken from the Memorial Minute presented by Professor Homer E. Woodbridge and adopted by the Faculty, November 24, 1953:

The life of Karl Pomeroy Harrington (June 13, 1861-November 14, 1953) has been closely interwoven with the life of Wesleyan and Middletown. His association with Wesleyan may be said to have begun before he was born: his father, Calvin Sears Harrington, was a graduate of the class of 1852. Shortly after Karl's birth in 1861, Calvin Harrington was became Professor Greek at Wesleyan, and for the next twenty-five years served on the faculty, for two years as Professor of Greek, and then as Professor of Latin. Karl Harrington was educated in the Middletown schools and at Wesleyan, graduating with high honors in the class of 1882. After teaching in Westfield and at Wilbraham, he spent two years in study abroad, in Germany, Greece, and Italy, and returned to Wesleyan in 1889 to serve for two years as Tutor in Latin. Another year of graduate study at Yale was followed by professorships of Latin at the University of North Carolina and the University of Maine. In 1905 he return to Wesleyan as the Robert Rich Professor of the Latin Language and Literature. He occupied this chair, formerly his father's, until he was made Professor Emeritus in 1929.

As a Latinist he was deeply interested in the poets: he published an edition of the elegiac poets (1914) and a volume on Catullus and his influence (1923). He was also a pioneer in making medieval Latin available to American students. His anthology of medieval Latin prose and verse (1925) had been recently reprinted at the time of his death.

Harrington interests were not just in the field of classical studies. He was an accomplished musician, a composer, and a hymnologist, who was at least as well known for his work in music as for his Latin scholarship. He composed one of the most popular modern Christmas carols, and also one of the favorite college comic songs. With Carl F. Price, he edited the first six editions of the

Wesleyan Song Book and was the editor of several hymnals. For more than a generation he was organist and choir direct of the First Methodist Church in Middletown.

He was also an outdoor man, an athlete, and a mountaineer. He frequently went out into the White Mountains with the "trail gang" maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club when they were constructing new stretches of trail. This interest is represented among his writings by his

Walks and Climbs in the White Mountain (1926) and his editorial work for many years on the White Mountain Guide.

His civic and social interests in the community were many. He founded the Twentieth Century Club, an organization involved with keeping Middletown accessible by railroad. For many years, he was the secretary and moving force in the Conversational Club, a town-and-gown organization which meets informally for dinners and discussions of papers. He was also active in the Apostles Club, contributing papers on a wide variety of subjects. He maintained an interest in the Mystical Seven and in his own fraternity, Psi Upsilon.

Collection Overview

The Harrington Papers are organized into 5 series and span the years 1880-1968. Most interesting is the Correspondence. It appears that John Spaeth, the first unofficial university archivist, grouped Harrington's correspondence (Series I, Box 1, folders 1-7) by topic or subject and wrote brief summaries for each folder. These summaries are included in each folder. Spaeth's organization by folder, along with his summaries have been maintained.

The following descriptions have been taken from Spaeth's summaries: Correspondence for the period November 1907 to March 1908 includes letters from Charles O. Judkins, (Class of 1895; Trustee 1910-1919) F.M. Davenport, and others concerning a proposal that Frederick M. Davenport, Class of 1889, be considered for election to the Wesleyan presidency. (W.A. Shanklin was elected president by the Board on November 13, 1908.)

Correspondence from July 1908 to February 1919 includes an interesting letter by Harrington to the Wesleyan Board of Trustees which is a proposal for the establishment of a woman's college under Wesleyan's auspice. His proposal is acknowledged by J.M. Buckley in a letter of November 20, 1908.

There is correspondence for 1916 with Dr. Olin concerning a new organ for Memorial Chapel.

There is correspondence is with Wesleyan official and contractors and relates to the electrification of the South College chimes in the folder covering the period February 1919 to December 1921.

Correspondence covering the years November 1925 to May 1942 is primarily between Harrington and President McConaughy and concerns such matters as salary, retirement, office accommodations, etc.

Folder 5 correspondence covers the years March 1922 to September 1952. This folder ends with a "Bon Voyage" farewell to Harrington and his wife, Jennie, as they move from Wesleyan to California with their daughter, Mabel Potter (Mrs. George), in 1951. There are long letters by the Harringtons to the Dutchers and Spaeths, also a photocopy of a letter by Dean Acheson.

Correspondence covering the years 1954-1960 includes letters of sympathy to Mrs. Harrington on the death of Karl Harrington. There is some business correspondence relating to the publication of Third Year Latin and other works. Some of the letters are between Mabel Potter and John Spaeth, but also with the publishers.

The last folder of correspondence covers the years 1961-1981 and contain letters between Mabel Potter and Verna and John Spaeth. Topics relates to the re-publication and copyright issues of some of Karl Harrington's writings.

Series II: Writing include some papers presented at the meetings of the Conversational Club and Apostles Club. They also reflect his interests in railroads, Middletown, and Wesleyan history. Harrington's notes and manuscript drafts on Latin are in Series III. His musical interests are reflected in Series IV. Harrington made several attempts at keeping a diary but without much success. Three very incomplete volumes of the diary can be found in Series V. Also in this series is a copy of Harrington's manuscript autobiography.

Series VI consists of 11 volumes of scrapbooks that were kept by Karl Pomeroy Harrington covering the years 1878 through 1936. Volumes are large and very fragile. The scrapbook paper is very deteriorated, pages crumble, items have become loose. The scrapbooks document events at Wesleyan, Middletown, and Harrington's interest in the Methodist Episcopal Church and music. They also contain information relating to other places that Harrington lived or taught, for example, North Carolina.

It should also be noted here that two items were not found when processing the K.P.H. Papers in 2005. The items are: Twentieth Century Club. Annual Report, 1911. Copy of typescript, 5p. and Tibullus Notes IV. These items were present on a preliminary list done in 1984.

Collection Arrangement

Series I: Correspondence, 1907-1981

Series II: Writings, circa 1935-1949

Series III: Latin, 1880-1933

Series IV: Music, 1905-1950

Series V: Diaries/Autobiography, 1891-1895, 1968

Series VI: Scrapbooks, 1856-1925

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.